Just Something I Scavenged On Hiatus Thank you, Jeccabella-Guest
by Asuki-sama
Summary: 700 years ago, the humans left Earth for the stars. Earth, only a shell of the life-abundant planet it used to be, was declared unfit for humans any longer. But what if some humans were left behind? And what if, 700 years later, generations later, those same humans find themselves stuck in the same struggle for survival as their ancestors? And what if, they could change it all?
1. When You're Living the Life of Luxury

I woke up with the sun in my eyes and the burning sensation of decay in my nose. Great. The pollution got in again.

I squinted at the sun while shaking the sleep from my thoughts. _Where is that reeking smell coming from?_ I swung my legs over the rickety bed and landed on the old, rusty metal surface sheet called 'the floor'. If you could even call it that.

Brushing away the dirt from my worn jeans and ragged forest green tank top I had had scavenged months ago, I expertly swept up my chestnut hair into a messy bun and made a face in the broken mirror. "Not too shabby, Kamari," I said to myself. _I really need someone to talk to._ I grabbed my makeshift bow next to my bed and tied a bandana around my nose and mouth to keep the perpetrating smell muted as well as the toxins out of my face.

I found that by front door one of the boarded up windows had a widening crack in it, letting in the toxins and the perpetual stench from outside invade inside. You would think one would get used to the smell. _Ugh_ , I thought. I grabbed a rag from my belt and stuffed it in the growing crack, praying that it would hold. Because if it doesn't, I'll have to find a new place to crash, and it's dangerous to go outside by yourself for too long. Thanks to the insane amount of dangers lurking around every turn.

Before heading out to scavenge for more food, I gently scooped up a cute little charm bracelet from my nightstand. Katie's bracelet. My heart clenched a little bit at the thought of Katie, and I tucked the bracelet in my bra next to my heart.

Hey, you can never be too safe.

I slipped out of the banged up trailer, crouching beneath the huge mountains of trash. God, what a mess humankind did to this Earth. I'm ashamed to be human. I wish I were a measly cockroach instead. They're survivors, not destroyers. Did people even care when they destroyed their own home, their own planet? Apparently not, because when things got tough, they all stole away to the stars, leaving behind the poor that couldn't pay for a trip out of this waste bin. Cowards, every last one of them.

Well, today their trash will help me with at least one thing. Food. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a can or two of actual food instead of gnawing on dirty leather to quench my hunger. I smirked. Maybe I'll even find a guardian angel with a place with lots of food, water, and an actual life. Right.

* * *

 _Alright, alright! A new fic, guys! I'll be uploading every Friday/Saturday, which ever day life doesn't get in the way of first._

 _Ciao!_

 _Update: Big shout out to SandStorm3D and Dinosaurs R Dead for helping me with my writing. They're awesome! Check out their work. Anyways, on with the show!_


	2. Family: An Anchor During Rough Waters

"Snook, hey, hey Snook, you up? You up yet? You're up now, right? Right?!" I groaned at my sibling's hyper antics. I cracked open one eye only to meet a pair of green ones. I blinked at the light that had disturbed my already forgotten dream. Goodbye, sleep.

I got up with a start, faster than Pyro could move away. My head crashed into his. The ten year old let out a yelp of pain and sprawled helplessly onto the floor. As the responsible nineteen year old of the situation, I _probably_ should've felt guilty.

Rubbing his flaming red head gingerly, he glared at me. "Whatcha do that for?"

I cocked my head in mock confusion. "Do what?"

Pyro's scowl just deepened and made an odd growling sound. Heh, it sounded like Devil's growl. It's a funny day when your youngest brother tries to scowl at you and imitate your other younger brother. Nearly snorting while trying to hold in my laughter, I leapt off the bed and joined my youngest brother on the ground. "Hey, champ. You'll forgive me right?"

Pyro's snarling face did not budge. "No."

"But what if," I whispered while looking around as if checking the area to see if it was secure, "I do...this!" I leaped at Pyro little body and tickled him until his face went as red as his hair. Over the years, I had perfected my tickling technique on Pyro, finding all of his weak spots and mastering how to use them to my advantage. It came in handy.

"N-no stop!" Pyro shrieked in between laughs, tears running down his face. "I-I give up!" He wiped away the snot that ran down his face as he tried to compose himself after my attack. "I forgive you Snook." His little face that still had hints of baby fat was split into a wide grin.

I grinned back. Damn, the day that that'll stop working will be a sad one. "Thanks champ. I owe you one. Now, what's so urgent that you had to wake me up so early for?" It really was painfully early. I glanced out of a little crack of our boarded up window and saw that it was pitch black.

"Well..." Pyro was now rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, a bad sign in my book. Pyro only rubs the back of his neck if something was really wrong or he was really upset. And he rarely gets truly upset. "We kinda sorta ran out of food..." That froze my grin.

Oh God. I preformed some sloppy mental math to find out our needs and our emergency funds. A family of nine, plus the need for food to trade for other necessities… With _our_ emergency funds meant... Not enough. And today was Market Day of all days. I felt panic starting to creep onto my face. But my littlest brother didn't need to see that so I hurriedly changed my expression into my "big brother, leader" facade.

"How much do you think we need?" I calmly asked Pyro. I needed to prepare him. He was the brother I was going to pass this family to if something happened to me. Shock was too unpredictable, Trouble (aka the twins) were a no brainer, and Devil… While being the second youngest brother, he scared the hell out of me. I'm pretty sure he's constantly on the edge of slaughtering everybody in this "town".

And I could never in my life push this responsibility onto Cherry. She needed to find a husband that could ensure her survival. Everybody knew that. The younger ones, Angel and Snow, were too delicate to take on managing this on-edge family.

Sure, Pyro was quite young and liked to blow things up, hence the nickname, but he was quite responsible. The best choice to run the family if I were to...die. Or, maybe not _die_ , but start my own family somewhere.

Jeez, I'm psyching myself out. Pyro's brows furrowed in confusion, his green eyes darkened in concentration. Poor thing never guessed that I would be passing this family to him in my- uh, leaving. But he had always sensed that I pushed him harder than anyone else in this family, thus giving me his all. I'm actually very proud of him, but he's still just a kid. And I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

"Uh, I think we need, um, three fish, seven tomatoes, and ten carrots."

"And what makes you say that?" I urged on.

"Because, um, if we trade the tomatoes we can get some new blankets for Snow, a little bit of preserved soap, something for the latrine, a few womanly items for Cherry, -ooh- and maybe another weapon, for me. And also some more cool stuff if we bargain right! Dried carrots can keep longer than dried tomatoes, so we always trade the tomatoes first. Then we should dry the carrots and fish which will sustain us, if we ration, for a month."

"How?" I kept drilling him; I needed to make sure he knew his stuff.

"If we cut each carrot eighteen times and each one of us eat one piece a day we get twenty days of carrots plus the fish would add another twenty days, at least, if we cut it up properly."

I continued quizzing him until I was satisfied he would be able to do it perfectly by himself. Calculating the amount of food needed to eat, trade, and look for could mean the difference between life and death for a family in this world. I love the little guy but I also wanted this family to live and, hopefully, grow.

I looked outside again, and saw the sun starting to peek over of the horizon. I stood up and ruffled Pyro's head, "Well, little buddy, you know your stuff. I'm gonna go to the Secret Base to hunt for some fish. You wake up Angel and tell her, politely, to pick ten carrots and seven tomatoes at the Base too. Remind her not to pick any more than we need, we can't have all of our 'crops' lost in one picking, can we?" I grabbed my fishing pole and headed out.

While walking to the Secret Base, I did a little bit of thinking.

The Secret Base was really just an acre of land that somehow managed to survive in this trash heap of a world. We had found out that wild onion, tomatoes, carrots, and beans were growing there. Trouble and Devil believed it was once a farm and I can't help but agree with them. There're also a few trees and a relatively uncontaminated river there. But the river was where I got my nickname, Snook.

Shawn. I contemplated my real name, boring compared to my other family members' real names (Sherri, Sheki, Shi/Sho, Shina, Shilia, Shirid, and Shrimp, respectively). The name of my father. But, from an early age, I had a real talent for catching and cooking fish. Particularly a special kind my parents had dubbed 'snook' when they were still alive. And Snook just stuck.

I love all of my siblings to death, but I can't help but feel my parents could have done with less of them. I sighed. But as the eldest, I had an obligation to take care of all of them. And _that_ I would do. I smiled to myself. _That_ I would always do.

Shaking off my reverie, I sniffed the air. I smelled the slightly cleaner air that indicated my arrival to the Secret Base. But something was wrong. Something felt…off. I paused and looked around, but everything seemed normal. What was it? Why did I have a feeling that something was terribly wrong?

Kind of nervous now, I broke into a light jog, trying to quickly maneuver through the winding towers of waste. Just the thought of something being wrong with the Base had my heart racing. We've depended on the Base for as long as I could remember.

Bloody hell. I paused and sniffed the air once more. A feeling of dread washed over me. Was the air… _burning_?

I broke into a dead run. I numbly felt a piece of metal slice a small cut on my arm, but I kept plowing forward. The Base was our main source of food. If something…something happened to it…

We'd be dead.

Sweat was already beginning to trickle down my face, my trusty fishing pole becoming a hindrance in my shaking hand. Something was _really_ wrong. The small archway that marked the front of the Secret Base was still there, untouched. I hissed out a breathe of relief but continued on, fearing the worse.

And the worse met me.

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 _Yeah, sorry for the weird update time. Hurricane Matthew got mighty close to where I'm living. I'm alright, just a little shaken up. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chapter._

 _Update:_

 _Oh, right. Before I forget, I'd like to tell you guys that I will be uploading some drabbles to keep y'all entertained. They're called Benji's Super Duper Extra Awesome Special Bonus Behind the Scenes Clips! (Or BSDEASBBSC for short). Don't ask why they're named that, that'll come later. They a) do nothing to advance the plot and b) happens before, during, or after the chapter they come with. Using your inferring skills, I'm sure y'all get where it belongs. Bonus chapters, yay! ('Cause I don't have time for regular chapters *^*) These were originally separate filler chapters but I moved them. Oh, the pains I go through for you guys. Ciao!_

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Trouble Never Comes Alone

"Hey, hey Pyro. Wake up." Trouble was shaking their youngest sibling out of bed. The groggy ten-year-old was not having it.

"We ran out of food. Tell Snook for us." The twins had their usual mischievous grins on, but this time they had a suspicious gleam to it.

"What? We ran out of food? And why do I have to tell Snook for you guys?" Pyro was rubbing his eyes sleepily, common sense was not quite in his system yet.

One of the twins pulled Pyro completely out of bed and snickered, "Yep, we ran out of food. It's kinda urgent, you know, we outta wake up _someone_ up to tell Snook."

The other twin continued. "And we didn't want to tell him personally cause, he's not really a bad-news-in-the-morning person."

"But he loves it whenever _you're_ helping him out by informing him quickly." Said the other.

Pyro honestly just wanted to get back to bed but the prospect of helping his eldest sibling got him excited. "Oh-kay," Pyro eyed Trouble suspiciously, but he was still waaaaay too tired to question their logic, "I'll do it."

"Good boy, Pyro! And remember," Trouble said in unison, "be _extra_ loud and annoying so that you _definitely_ wake him up okay? So poor Snooky boy won't have to be given bad news only half-awake." Trouble had trouble hiding their snickering.

"Okay!" shouted Pyro, becoming increasingly more annoyed, and still morning-stupid. He wandered off to bother Snook. Once he left, the boys fell onto the floor in laughter.

"Yes!" Trouble shouted together while high-fiving each other. After laughing for a few more minutes, they picked themselves up from the floor. They shrugged their arms over each other's shoulder as they left Pyro's room.

"By the way, why _were_ we up so early?" Questioned one twin. The other shrugged, unconcerned. So, they wandered off, arm in arm, to where ever those two go…

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 _Don't judge me. This was written waaaaaay back in the dark ages when I first started this story. Like, a looooooong time ago. Badly written? Yes. But hey, back then I was a noob that snuck herself in a corner of the library people-watching for "character data". Plus, I'm too lazy to change it right now._


	3. When Nothing Goes Right…Go Left

The scene laid out before me brought me to my knees. The Secret Base that my family had been trying to protect and preserve was completely ransacked. The few wild crops that grew there were ripped out from the roots. The river was void of any movement. All remaining evidence, burned. And no sign of who the thief was or where they went.

My family's livelihood was gone. The very thing that kept us just above starvation and death was _gone._ Just like that. My knuckles that were gripping my fishing pole were stark white, and my whole body shook, red starting to cloud my vision. _The thief that dared mess with MY family was going. To. PAY!_

"Snook?" A sweet voice called out tentatively, breaking my angry haze. Angel. She was here. "Is everything alright?"

I breathed in deeply, composing myself before speaking to my younger sibling. "Everything is alright, Angel. Big brother just needs to fix a little something." I moved to block Angel's view of the scene.

Angel's eyes narrowed in suspicion. She may be six years younger than me but she was a smart kid. "Snook, what's behind you?" She took another step forward, resolve clear in her stance.

I closed my eyes in pain, debating what to do. She was bound to find out in a few seconds anyways.

Opening my eyes to a very determined-looking Angel, I told her the truth in one big rush. Angel's eyes widened in shock instead of anger, unlike me. Once I was done explaining, she peered over my shoulder curiously and gasped.

She averted her gaze from the Base and refocused on me. She pressed her "thinking finger" to her temple in shock, staring at me fearfully. Distress was already starting to settle in; her previously commander-like presence was slowly crumbling.

"What are we going to do?" She started rubbing her temple furiously. Distress was evident as her eyes filled with tears. "We…" Angel broke off to choke back a sob, "The Base was all we had, what are we going to do for food? Supplies? Snow needs more medicine…"

I started rubbing _my_ temple, in turmoil. How could this _happen_? My parents found this before they were even in love, just partners in crime, er, scavenging. They had protected it and defended it for _years_ , hiding it from the outside world. How could we lose it after so many defenses and precautions? And after a measly eight years after their deaths, too. They held strong for _sixteen years_. I felt like everything I had worked for to ensure my siblings' survival was washing down the drain. Despair was clouding my mind. Then I suddenly felt blinding pain on my left cheek, my head now facing my right.

"Snook, snap out of it! Stop beating yourself up over this! We've had many, _many_ setbacks before and we survived them all!" In my anguish, I had not noticed that I had sunk onto the ground. I looked up to Angel's tear filled eyes and realized I had to be strong for my family.

I nodded in agreement to her statement, "Yes, we'll survive this we just gotta…" With my mind racing, I was thinking up a storm on how we could survive. _Think, Snook, think. Your family depends on you._ And it hit me, "We're gonna scavenge."

Angel gasped in horror. "No, you can't! It's too dangerous!"

Scavenging has always been the riskiest method of surviving. I winced. The pollution alone could kill you, which is at its worse in the scrap cities. Choking to death on the toxic air is not a way I wanted to go. You could die at the hands of other, more desperate scavengers and who knows what else. Not to mention, death is always around the corner. Literally. Much of the trash piles were too high and unstable. Anything could topple them. Junk crashes have taken the lives of many scavengers…like Mom. There are also rumors of horribly mutated creatures that walk the scraplands, killing every living thing in their path.

I shuddered at the thought of scavenging – the hell for the most desperate and insane. But it _was_ the most profitable way of life. Other than joining the Raiders, that is. And like hell if I'm ever going to do _that_. Ignoring the throbbing pain on my cheek, I sprung up, startling Angel, and grabbed her hand and proceeded to drag her behind me towards home.

"What are you doing?!" Angel demanded when I lugged her onto my back, my fishing pole wedged firmly between us, "I can walk on my own. And you're hurt! I'm not a child. Put me down, at once." She was using her 'commander' voice on me but she knew that wouldn't work on me anymore. Though it did make me feel a little guilty for treating her like a child. Angel can do that. But she was right, she and Devil were thirteen now, nearly adults. But I also needed to get us home as fast as possible.

I flashed back a spry smile and retorted, "Are you sure you're not one?" That shut her up, but she still gave me the evil eye on the run back. She was too nice to do anything, though, making me feel even guiltier. However, I really needed her cooperation and her silence as fast as possible and as easily as possible. Still didn't make me feel any better about myself.

I ran like the wind, barely avoiding sharp pieces of metal to keep Angel from being scratched. I vaguely noticed the change of scenery happening around me. The tall, foreboding sights of abandoned buildings and piles of junk turned into the familiar not-so-abandoned, semi-rebuilt skyscrapers. I felt many eyes on me at every turn. Each dark alley held the almost nostalgic promise of danger. I didn't dare look up at the upper levels of the leaning towers. Many a gang has attacked for looking at "their" territory. The increasing, but not unbreathable, pollution that always came where there were humans filled my lungs. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

I ducked into a familiar alleyway. There was barely any room for two people but with Angel on my back, we were good. I skirted around the next bend, almost touching the Razors' territory. I felt myself go pale. If I had touched their squat, ugly building, they would have been on us faster than a pack of Janks.

As I got farther and farther away from the deadly Razor gang and closer and closer to the heart of the city, the buildings grew smaller. The danger of being spotted also increased. Along with…the music?

I didn't stop to listen, but it was a pounding, head-banging ratchet. Just like the music from the local club that was the very heart of the city.

With the tall, wreaked city buildings of yore finally out of my way, I could see our "heart" pumping loudly. And brightly. Huge sparkling spotlights danced their way around the building, magnifying its brilliance. Consisting of two giant towers, linked together with a hodgepodge of buildings built around it, it was a city by itself. The bridge that separated my city from theirs felt longer than ever.

 _How can their generators handle all of that waste?_ I thought with disgust as I made my way to my family's home. We were situated in a far safer edge of town. The only disadvantage was the proximity to the club. _The club runners couldn't possibly… Unless…_ No way. Everything made sense. How they could possibly afford to run this – this monstrosity. _The Raiders must be backing them._ I was not only pissed off by the Base situation but now _this_!? _Raiders_ this close to my family?

A faint nudging from behind made me remember my original goal. Get home as fast as possible. I launched myself onto the main street. The cobbled ground was comforting under my feet. _So close. So close. So close._ I was more than willing to ignore the pulsing monstrosity behind me.

I skidded in front of a very large, faded yellow building. This must be a record for getting home. Welcome home, indeed. I dreaded telling my family our new…situation.

By that time, Angel was no longer mad at me, forgiving as she was. She jumped off my back She was even considerate enough to snatch my fishing pole before it fell onto the ground. Ugh, I felt so bad for earlier. But I was panting hard. As light as Angel was, carrying a thirteen-year-old in thick pollution was hard work. Urgency was spread throughout her face as she waited for me to catch my breath.

"Come on! We have to tell the others about what happened." I could only nod, and followed her to the front of the rundown apartment building our family resided in.

With all the boarded up windows, the building looked ominous, but we were the only ones living here. We required a lot of space as a family of nine. On the first story, there was a kitchen, a semblance of a living room, and a place where we ate our food. You could usually find at least one person in the living room but all was silent. Strange. But I couldn't think too much about it. We had to find Cherry. We passed the first story in a flash and headed up the stairs in the back.

We headed towards Cherry's room. As the second oldest, she was the sensible choice to inform first. Looking down the hallway, I identified Cherry's room as the second room down on the right. With my breath completely back, Angel and I barreled through the door, only to meet a frantic, pale-faced Cherry.

"God, Cherry are you alright? Answer me, what's wrong? Is someone hurt?" I asked, panicked. We did _not_ need another crisis. "Or…" I was afraid to ask, "...Dead?"

"No," Cherry said, unwittingly dispelling my fears, but she was still pacing around in panic, "No, it's not that. Shock's gone again!" Cherry was becoming increasingly upset, grating on my nerves. I muttered curses under my breath. _This was_ not _the time for you to disappear, Shock!_

It was Angel that saved the day, looking nervously between her increasingly flustered eldest siblings. She managed to calm Cherry down with a few words. "Cherry, everything's fine. We all know that Shock disappears time to time, he's always fine in the end, but you really gotta listen to me! This is really important." Cherry was gradually calming down enough to listen.

"Okay Angel, what's so important?" Cherry asked point blank.

Angel looked back at me anxiously, unwilling to wind up Cherry again. Maybe telling Cherry first wasn't such a good idea. "Um, prepare yourself. It's really, really bad…" Angel proceeded to tell Cherry the entire story. Cherry staying surprisingly calm up until Angel mentioned the new need for scavenging.

"Scavenging!?" She then focused her tirade onto me. "Snook, you can't be serious! There are other ways we can survive, we're all capable and there's a lot of us…" Cherry suddenly looked less certain of her objection. There, in fact, _were_ a lot of us. That's precisely why we had to go for it. It was the riskiest but most profitable way to survive and with so many of us... It was the only way we _could_ survive without the Base. Cherry realized that as well.

"But, that's how mom…" Cherry trailed off, a new kind of fear and sadness set in her eyes. I felt my heart squeeze at that. We had all thought our mother was immortal, only for her to die doing the thing she was best at. Leaving us all alone in this trash heap.

"Angel, inform the others. I'm going in the morning."

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 _Alright, another weird update time. Life was just being crazy. I'm gonna be uploading every two weeks now, at least until I'm done with the craziness._


	4. Forgive, Yes - Forget, Never

_Alright, another chapter! Weird update time (at least the third one this month) but I have a reason for it. My dear life has decided to go crazy on me. I'm going to go on hiatus for at least a month, or, at least until I've sorted myself out again. Anyways, I like to thank my favorite Swedish girl, **Limberj** for favoriting and following my strange story. Check her out. She doesn't have that many stories but she's a darn good person. I'd also like to thank **MelaAnimations,** for the follow. Eek! I've got my first review! Thank you, **Guest** , you've just made my week. I'm easily excited :). Yes, I have people actually acknowledging that their reading my story now! Yay! And thank you, silent readers for being there. Don't be afraid to drop a review :), I won't bite. I actually would like some critiquing. Anyways, on with the story!_

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Great. Just _great_. Another day of searching and searching and not one bit of food! I glowered at the dirt path on the way back to the trailer. I sighed. At least I could rest for a few hours before trying again. The setting sun behind my back reminded me that I, in fact, did _not_ have a few hours. I kicked the dust bitterly. Damn.

I could only hope that things would be better tomorrow. Yep. I've resorted to hope now.

I threw open the trailer door and sprung in as fast as I could. I prayed that I could shut it before any pollution got it. Slamming the door shut, I exhaled in relief and made to take off my bandana. Then I froze.

The air was thick with the reeking stench of trash. The pollution had gotten in. How? I looked frantically for the cause, nothing. _The window._ I started to curse in my mind, unwilling to waste precious air for it outside of my head.

I inspected the cracked window from this morning. Damn it, the stupid rag didn't hold. I angrily stomped over to the tiny bedroom where I stored my things. Well, it is not like I had much anyway.

I grabbed the sheet that was there when I had first come and stuffed it into my backpack. I'm still grateful for that backpack I used whenever I needed to book it. Damn it, that trailer was a lucky find, one of the few buildings in the city that still had breathable air inside.

After packing all of the necessities, I left, slamming the door loudly behind me. I didn't look back. It never helped to look back.

The moon high in the sky, I dragged my feet across the dirt. My eyes were growing heavy. But in this world, you can't sleep out in the open. If I went to sleep with that nasty air in my face, I would be slowly suffocated or get lung poisoning and die before morning. I had to trek on.

As I moved on, I was careful to avoid the tall ruins of buildings past. They could still be unstable and junk crash on me. Or they could be harboring Janks. I shuddered at the thought of the mutated creatures of the dark. I adjusted the bow on my back slightly, wary of the shadows around me. Damn scrap cities, getting me all worked up.

After a few hours of uneventful walking, I encountered a change in scenery. I must have crossed into what used to be the countryside or something because the air was a lot clearer. Not clean, what was anymore, but not scrap city air either.

I cautiously removed my bandana, to see if the air was actually breathable. I immediately started coughing when it was removed but I felt my face split into a giddy grin. I could breathe without the stupid bandana!

Excitement took hold. I had rarely encountered places, aside from a few buildings inside the scrap cities, with breathable air in my lifetime. On the rare occasions of stumbling upon one, it would be in between scrap cities, too far away from my source of profit and survival to create a base. I looked back and saw that I could still see the scrap city I left on the skyline. Even better. I would have to walk a few hours more to scavenge but it would be worth it. I set up camp, confident that the screwed up Janks wouldn't end up in a "clean-zone".

Once I was done, I laid down, the stars barely visible through the thick smog swirling in the atmosphere. I put my hands beneath my head, comfortable and in heaven. I closed my eyes from the destruction and took another long, deep breath of the semi-clean air. I smiled.

 _If only I could share this with someone_. I frowned. The thought disturbed my well-earned peace. I shifted myself into a more comfortable position, throwing away the thought. I tucked my hands behind my head, content once more.

A slight breeze whisked a strand of my hair from my face. I freed one of my hands to retrieve it. I just wanted to tuck it back into my messy bun when suddenly; I changed directions and reached up to my heart. To where my little sister's bracelet laid, nestled comfortably between my skin and my bra. _Katie,_ I thought with bliss, _you would love it here. I know you would._ The beauty of the world unexpectedly hit me with the mention of my dear sister. But my thoughts soon turned dark, filled with bitterness. _So why did you have to go and die?_


	5. Flame to the Page

_"What you call being "too lazy to review" is what we call "a flame to the pages" as the writers. That one minute or two that you felt "too lazy" to review is another minute of creeping discouragement that all writers feel as they begin to think..._

 _"Why am I even here…?"_

 _"What's even the point of continuing?"_

 _"My skills must be terrible…no one cares for my story…"_

 _"I'll never be a good writer...I quit."_

 _These are only a few thoughts that go through every writer's head- that go through MY head- when we put out a chapter / story with all our heart and soul within, and we sit there…and sit…and wait…and not a single person says even a word._

 _If you're not a writer, you have NO IDEA how much that hurts"_

 _~YagamiNguyen (not me)_

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 _Just thought that I would upload this. I've become semi-discouraged and uninspired. I'm now focusing more on my editing rather than my writing for now, at least, until I feel like spending time to write is worth it. Thanks for sticking with me for the short time this was. As a note: I am_ not _quitting writing. No matter how much I feel like I'm yelling into a stupid abyss, I'm_ never _going to quit something I love just because no one is here to support me yet. I'm going to take a break, improve my skills, and maybe, maybe become a writer whose works y'all can read with pride. Thanks and good bye._

 _~ **Asuki-sama**_


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